Deland Officer Says Her Leaving Was Forced

DELAND - A DeLand police officer who was charged with hitting her police-officer husband quit the force and said in a letter made public Wednesday that she had been forced to do so.

Judy Schroeter, 33, said her resignation ``is not of my own accord and therefore, it is under protest.'' Her husband, Cpl. Tony Schroeter, resigned earlier this week.

She did not specify in the letter how she was pressured to quit. Judy and Tony Schroeter and their lawyers could not be reached for comment.

City Manager Mike Abels denied that she had been pressured to quit. He gave her until 9 a.m. Tuesday to change her mind.

``If notified, I will consider your resignation null and void,'' Abels said in a letter to Judy Schroeter.

The couple had been suspended with pay since November, when they were charged with misdemeanor battery for hitting each other during an argument. On Feb. 3, a judge sentenced Tony Schroeter, 38, to one year probation for domestic battery. He would be legally prevented from carrying a weapon while on probation.

After an internal investigation, DeLand Police Chief William Anderson recommended that the couple be fired. Abels planned to make a final decision on the couple's fate this week, before they quit.

The couple's problems started Oct. 29, when Judy Schroeter told DeLand police that her husband knocked her to the ground and threw a beer bottle at her.

Judy Schroeter said she hit him back.

Tony Schroeter was jailed in December on a charge of stalking his wife, but a judge let him go home after Judy Schroeter pleaded for his return.

The couple blame their ongoing struggles on alcohol and struggles for control.